Can you imagine how much harder it would be to be a corrupt asshole if instead of screwing over millions unnamed people, you had to go and look all 30 of the relevant people in your life in the face and go “I wanna suck the money out of you by becoming the sole proprietor of this tool”?
No, because someone else will file for the exact same patent locally at the exact moment the law is invoked.
Can you imagine how much harder it would be to be a corrupt asshole if instead of screwing over millions unnamed people, you had to go and look all 30 of the relevant people in your life in the face and go “I wanna suck the money out of you by becoming the sole proprietor of this tool”?